U2

Pop

Rejected For All The Wrong Reasons

Review Score:

(10/10)
With the massive "ZooTV" tour and record-combo of "Achtung Baby" and "Zooropa" behind them, the attitude as U2 re-convined in 1995 for a work on a new record was decidedly progressive: they would continue to push the envelope as far as they could musically, technologically, and conceptually. Because of technological aspect of it, this was U2's hardest record to produce. It took so long to complete that it went into what was supposed to have been tour rehearsal time(for the new "Popmart Tour", which was to be bigger and more massive than even "ZooTV"). As a result they were not ready when the tour started in Las Vegas. More importantly, the string of critical success that U2 had going back to the late 80s finally came to an end in 1997 when "Pop" was released, as the reviews were very lukewarm, even poor. U2 were disappointed with its sales...and the fact that "Pop" sold 6,000,000 copies should tell you something about their standards.

U2's peak was over, but I will forever hold that this record was unfairly criticized just because it was so different from everything U2 did before it, but that's a staple of U2's career: change. 'Do You Feel Loved', 'If God Will Send His Angels', 'Staring At The Sun', 'Last Night On Earth', 'Gone', 'If You Wear That Velvet Dress', and 'Please' are just great songs. Also standing out is the closer, a song of desperation and despair, 'Wake Up Dead Man'. This album may have seemed about lemons and arches and colors and videos making fun of the village people(the opener, 'Discotheque') and all fun and games on the outside, but in reality the lyrics of this record are the most serious and cynical of U2's career. Not many people realize that 'Staring At The Sun' is a political song, describing how suits and ties can be just as deadly as soldiers with guns. 'Please' is as serious as it gets lyric-wise: "And love is big, bigger than us, but love is not, what you're thinking of".

U2 did a lot to help this record by putting out some great performances of its songs, especially 'Staring At The Sun' and 'Please', including a emotion-high show in Sarajevo, the first rock show their since their war ended. But towards the end of the tour, it became obvious that they had gone as far as they could in the direction started in Berlin in 1990. They felt the need to tone everything down and just be four guys in a band again. This first came to the public's eyes in the form of old songs that hadn't been performed in a long time, showing up in the setlists of the later "Popmart" shows, such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday". The public would soon get a more blatent show of this change of direction, but unfortunately, it would also leave this album in the dust. Vastly underrated and underappreciated, this is still a very good record.

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